7-1! But Are United Actually Good? Europa League Final Talk & Ahmad’s Impact
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Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Manchester, is it the Manchester Red podcast or the Samuel Lockhurst show? I get confused on the most in these days. It might well be the Samuel Lockhurst show. We'll go with that after I got a reprimand from Samuel last week for not giving it its official title. It's given away the person I'm joined by today. Samuel is with me. I'm Tyrone Marshall.

The sun is shining on this Friday morning in Manchester. It is a beautiful day in Manchester. The sun was shining on United last night as well. Samuel, first of all, get the formalities out of the way. How are you this morning? I'm not too bad. Not too bad, thank you. It's another tiring night, but you can't complain with all the travel and the privileges we have for this job. Absolutely. And the Europa League has been a lot of fun for United this season. That's...

What's that, 13 goals now in the three home knockout legs? So yeah, an awful lot of fun and fun again last night. United are going to Bilbao. They're going back to Bilbao on May the 21st. A 7-1 aggregate win against Athletic in the semi-final, a result that nobody would have predicted before.

eight, nine days ago when United flew out to Bilbao and a scoreline that maybe slightly flatters United and United 7, Athletic Club 1 sounds easy. Was it easy, Samuel?

It's probably the most misleading 7-1 scoreline anyone's ever clapped eyes on, obviously over two legs. But United's pedigree in the Europa League, their love affair with the competition this season is quite remarkable. That's two rounds running that they've scored seven goals across Europe.

the two matches against Lyon and Athletic Bilbao, you look at last night, I mean, I didn't realise how late it was that Mason Mount scored or relatively late. It was at the 72nd minute. And it wasn't a great shock to me to see United perform as badly as they did because we've become so accustomed to it this season. And

And certainly with that side last night, it was overloaded with defensive players when it shouldn't have been. I understood why Amram did it in the first leg where he's playing the percentages and he's been quite pragmatic because they were coming up against the side that were actually favourites going into these two semi-final matches. And you're playing at San Mames and...

there's an element of trying to, just trying to almost stay in the, stay in the tie, really going into the second leg. And it worked out better than anybody could have ever imagined. So I don't really understand why he felt the need to overload the team again with defensive players. And that sent out the wrong message. And lo and behold, as soon as that balance was addressed in the second half, United won at a counter in the end. And they are,

I mean Jekyll and Hyde doesn't really do them justice looking at their Premier League form and their Europa League form whilst their goal difference in the Premier League has gone towards the double digits in minus numbers they've racked up what is it 19 goals in six knockout ties in the Europa League I know the competition's quality has been diluted and

United are probably the best equipped side to win it as well in terms of the means they've had at their disposal, but to have still gone...

14 matches unbeaten is some going and they've, as I said, they've won the amount of goals they've scored in the knockout rounds. It's just bizarre, but they are a bizarre team and Amram can't work them out. He said at the post-match press conference, you don't know what you're going to expect, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

And a bad thing, I should say. And he said they have weaknesses. And almost at times he feels rather sheepish that they've got to this point where their season is salvageable. They're not going to cop any flak from supporters, matchgoers, as they did in last season at Selhurst Park. I think that that game at Crystal Palace last year has come up.

kind of raised the bar in terms of loyalty among the Manchester United matchgoers in that if there's something riding on the season you're not going to however bad you are and they were appalling last season they've been even worse this season you're not going to get flack even though you probably deserve it because you've earned a reprieve through going through to the final in the cup competition

And I'd argued last season it was warranted for the fans to actually turn on some of those players because even when they did reach a cup final, it was in the most farcical circumstances imaginable. Yet this season they have their mentality switched when it comes to the Europa League, even on the night where for 70 minutes, 60 minutes, they played well.

so badly that they look like the Premier League version of United, they still end up scoring four goals and going through 7-1 on aggregate. And in the press room afterwards, when it was Chris Wheeler who essentially...

spelt it out that United just won a semi-final on aggregate 7-1 and he's just shaking his head, I'm shaking my head, people have got their mouths wide open. I don't know what to make of this team and Amrim certainly doesn't as well. When the manager is saying that he doesn't know what to expect from his players,

nobody's able to fathom them and in a strange way the season can't end soon enough for him because certainly next season they cannot tolerate this you know borderline schizophrenic change in performance from domestic to European competition

Yeah, it was interesting when he said on Wednesday that not only does he not know which Manchester United are going to turn up, he doesn't know which United are going to turn up minute to minute within a game. And, you know, you see that every week and you saw it again last night that, yeah,

I guess, you know, let's flip the established order and start at the end because the end is certainly where the positives were. Four goals in 18 minutes to really put a gloss that this game and this tie didn't really deserve on. Like I say, it changed with those substitutions. All of them had a role, but it

But it felt to me, I know Mount got two goals, we'll come on to him. It felt to me like it changed most of all with Ahmad. He just brings a directness and an electricity to this United team that without him, it really lacks, doesn't it?

And he should have started last night. I know that they're being careful with him and with other players, but he's going to start against West Ham on Sunday. And I know it will be a very, very different atmosphere and different intensity, but they were 3-0 up going into the game last night. Three days shouldn't make a difference. His presence...

It completely changed the balance of that team last night. The way you look at that team, it changes. The first time he got the ball, he went on a direct charge. And it'll be interesting to see where he starts the final game.

provided he's fit because he is going to start the final you can't go into that and have him on the bench it would just be perverse because you've got the option of playing him on the wing Amram clearly prefers him to play as one of the two playmakers is that going to come at the expense most likely of Alejandro Garnaccio because I think I don't see Bruno Fernandes dropping back into midfield now at this point he's since the March internationals he seemed pretty settled back in one of the two number 10 roles

and you look at Ahmad's form this season under Amram in particular he was a one man band up until he got injured and there were two or three times last night when he did something with the ball and it's like you hear oh it's crowd pleasing football but it's productive football as well and

Rasmus Hoyland did not. I thought in the first half he led the line quite decently. The second half, fans were almost getting on his back at one time because he regressed that badly. He ends the night with a goal, a tap-in, the kind of goal strikers live for. But it's all through the work of Ahmad. And I'm not surprised that he's made that much of a difference. I wasn't surprised that he had a reasonably good impact at Brentford as well. You know what he's going to do.

But as we saw several years ago with Ian Robin, predictability can be a great strength if you're operating at pace and you're quick-footed. And Ahmad obviously is. And I think when you look at the squad that United have got, it's such a fascinating dynamic going into the Europa League final.

because of Tottenham's record against United, because of Postakoglu, his pledge, his promise that I always win something in my second season, what's riding on it. It's going to be the most consequential Europa League final there's been.

but the squad depth United have definitely trumps Tottenham's. There's an argument that Tottenham's team last night in Norway is better than United's. I'd argue that they've got a better goalkeeper. Their full-backs, Poro and Odogui, are they better than Dorgi and Dalot? Yes. I think they've got more...

technically rounded midfielders not necessarily better midfielders but i think they've got more of them at their disposal particularly watching ugarte again last night how poor he was all van der veen makes a huge difference as as a center back solanki is a better striker than hoyland he's not he's not a particularly very good striker but he's he's certainly better than rasmus hoyland

Yet you look at their bench and that's where, and that could come into play in the Europa League final. United have, United have one up on them there. And it is visible that United could be turned into their bench for inspiration in the Europa League final to,

salvage the situation or win it. And they will have good options, whether Ahmad is starting or not. I think it's safe to say he will start that final. But if he's not starting, Garnaccio's on the bench, you've got Garnaccio. They could have Mason Mount. They'll probably have Kobi Mainu on the bench because I don't really see, unless there's an injury, him starting in Bilbao. And it was a real flex for the muscles last night from Amrit that he was able to quite...

quite decisively change things. I mean, he decided before the hour mark that Shaw, Mount and Ahmad were going to come on. And unfortunately for Athletic Bilbao, as soon as they came on, they petered out quickly than the pre-match pyrotechnics because up until that point, I mean, Athletic Bilbao's substitutes were sprinting off because they still sensed an opportunity. And when you look to that away end last night in isolation,

It's just an absolutely resplendent side. It's going to really stick in the crawl for them as supportive as they were last night. They won't be hosting the final because that would have been, you'd probably struggled to spot any Tottenham or Bodo Glimt fans among them had Athletic Bilbao got there. And attacking that end, it was impossible not to be stirred by it.

But those three changes took the game away from them. And you look at those three players who came on in terms of their experience, in terms of their worth, what United have paid for them. And it's,

I suppose in May, new coming on a little bit later on his pedigree as an academy graduate, it's, it's difficult to keep up and athletic of course, were handicapped by not having the Williams brothers, not having their top scorer, Danny Vivian as well, absent and people in, in Bell, Bill Bell regard him as, as athletics, best defender. So that I,

I'd hesitate to say that United were lucky in the first leg because I don't think they were. You could say Victor Lindelof was lucky that the ball hit him, absolutely, but they were definitely lucky that Athletic went to Manchester without three or four of their big players because at times last night, never mind the Williams brothers, the Williams sisters could have troubled United. They were so poor in the first hour, but United being United in the Europa League, it's almost like we know how the story goes and

In the end, they'd somehow win a game 4-1 when they played well in it for about 20 minutes, probably. Yeah, and those substitutions do show when players are getting fit that there is a depth to this squad. It does make a difference when Amarim can turn to the bench, and it was pretty clear early on he had to turn to the bench last night. The other positive was a substitute as well, Mason Mount, two goals to add to the one against Brentford.

I mean, you'd say it's the best week of his United career, but there's not even any competition for that title, really. But it does feel like this has been a big week for him. You couldn't wipe the smile off his face last night. It was a brilliant moment for him too. Brilliantly taken goals as well. Wonderfully taken goals. You called it as Makeda-esque, his first. His second was great technique. He's clearly a player that Amorim love.

Absolutely loves. I think in the first interview he ever did as a United head coach, when he spoke to the club's TV station, he said, I think he said to me, I have to tell you how much I love Mason Mount. And we saw it in the first training session. He's clearly a player that he wants to make use of. And this has been, it feels like potentially a breakthrough week for him. Is that fair?

Yeah, completely. The technique of both those goals last night was exceptional. I mean, the first one was identical to Federico Mercado's. Winner against Aston Villa at the same end, Stretford End 15 years ago. The second one, when you look back at it, the way he, the finesse he puts on that shot, how deliberately he hits it, just so that he's not, he's not...

gets the right trajectory on it, it's not going to loop into the air. He's going to get the right pace on it. He knows where the goalkeeper is. He knows the goals where he can. That is a technically proficient and perfect piece of conversion play, if you want to call it like that. It was almost like someone, a golfer,

teeing not not teeing up sorry um going off the you know using a pitching wedge and getting it pretty much right on the pin and it'll be interesting to see what you know whether he can barge his way into that final 11 now because they've only got two games before then he will start you'd think against West Ham on Sunday and then the Chelsea match

I think last season going into that game, I thought he should have started just going off the back of scoring at Brentford while his tail was between his legs. Sorry, while he had his tail up. And he didn't. And then he got injured again pretty soon after that. That Chelsea game feels it's not important for United as far as the Premier League is concerned, but it will be really important for Mount.

There is clearly a player there that Amrim really rates, but there is also quite intense competition where you've got Fernandes as the captain who's immovable from the starting line. You've got Ahmad back in the team

And a lot of people, quite understandably, would feel as though he should be the second playmaker. You've got Garnaccio who started 14 games on the spin as one of the two playmakers. That run, I suspect, may come to an end due to the options they've got and the squad rotation that Amram will exercise against West Ham. But Mount is a specialist for it.

And he has experience of starting major finals. He started a Champions League final, which we've gone on about quite a lot. Not necessarily to put a case in for him, but it's easy to forget how much experience he's accrued at a relatively young age. Well, certainly he did at Chelsea in his first four seasons.

in their team under Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel and I think the turning point for him last night was that he did something with the ball, he did more than that, I mean he scored two lovely goals but for a playmaker I've watched him so often and wondered what's he actually done with the ball during the game and it's been next to nothing and

Before the Brentford game, he was coming on in games, just getting booked, putting himself about. And to be honest, one takes a dim view of that because he's a playmaker. He's meant to make the team play.

And he wasn't doing that. But his goal at Brentford was good. Well-timed run, read the pattern of play really well between Kobi Meynu and Alejandro Garnaccio. He scored even better goals last night, three goals in two games. And there's something admirable about all three of those goals. And as I said before on this podcast, he's a player that United should never have signed. Yeah.

for the circumstances, they wanted to make a midfielder out of him in a 4-2-3-1, which you could see on his debut against Wolves, just wasn't going to work. And even Eric Ten Haar gave up on that at the start of this season. But by accident, he could become a useful or a successful player at Manchester United because of the system that Ruben Amrim plays. And it wasn't a great surprise that Amrim

extolled Mount's virtues and said how much he loves him because it's easy to see why a coach who plays that system would and that Mount does fit into it. He is hardworking. As I've said a few times before,

Some of his best work for United has come off the ball, which isn't good enough for a Man Utd playmaker, but he's very good at pressing. And when he came on last night, I think I said to you, he's bringing him on really just to get them up the pitch, to press, to bring some energy. I wasn't thinking that he could get the ball and do what he did because we've not seen that anywhere near often enough from Mount...

But this needs to be a turning point for him now because we've come towards the end of his second season at United. And yesteryear, if you didn't cut it after two years, United could cut you loose. And they're clearly not going to be able to do that. And they're not going to do that because...

Amram really rates Mount and there is a role for him to play in that team and squad next season so it will be fascinating to see whether he can have a whether his fortunes will will change now I think there are still tweaks he's got to make not in terms of his play but I know he did the on pitch post-match chat last night he didn't do the mixer which wasn't a surprise to me because for whatever reason he

does not talk unless he has to talk to him on TV or occasionally a rights holder chat. I mean, he spoke to PLP after the Brentford game, which are just like, you know, some of the questions can be...

i think you can get tougher questions from pupils at school at times with premier league productions but that's not a criticism of the reporters that's the way premier league productions functions but it's an interesting story with mount and he needs to be a little bit more open not just on the pitch but off it as well yeah and i mean one more let's touch on one more player because i thought lenny yoro had a good game again it feels like he's really

making progress as a United centre-half now. He did speak afterwards in the mix zone and kind of spoke about those further in comparison to Reald. He still speaks to Rio further and they've done an interview together, but not just that. They speak off camera as well and takes a bit of advice from him. And, you know, you put Joro further into any social media platform at the moment and you're getting fans comparing the two. Still only 19, which is young for a centre-half.

It feels like, I don't think it's any surprise really, given how highly he was rated. But the performances we're getting now are why United sign him and why a lot of observers feel it could be, you know, maybe it will turn out to be their best signing of last summer because there's a player of rich potential there, isn't there?

I think he's actually more mature than Ferdinand was at the same age. He's probably more mature than Ferdinand now even. In his late 40s, some of the language that Ferdinand comes out with, it is very much, how do you do, fellow kids? But I think Joroh's been good since the March internationals. He's stayed fit. He's started the majority of games well.

of course, getting a goal, you're going to get a bit more recognition from that as he did against Lyon. But he's playing on the front foot. He's... I can't remember what game it was. It might have been the second leg against Lyon where actually I thought he was

pretty dodgy and he didn't have that good a night but in the absence of martinez you need united needs a defender who's going to carry the ball forward from from the back three because you can't play with three defenders just being very rigid remaining in their own third as a manchester united side and euro is starting to shoulder that responsibility not necessarily with line breaking passes as this is martinez's trademark but actually moving into the final third and

it'll be really interesting to see what happens hopefully when yoro and martinez are starting together in a back three on a regular basis because all of a sudden that looks like it doesn't actually look that defensive a back three even though they are two defenders and they'd be joined by harry mcguire or matthias it's yeah it has a real attacking attacking flair about it because both of them have definitely got it in their lockers and euro

to be doing that at his age and the season that he's had where he had that setback of fracturing his metatars during the pre-season tour took a long time for him to get his debut it was early December wasn't it and

At that point, you're looking at it thinking this is just a season of acclimatisation, just adapting, just settling in, getting used to your new surroundings, learning the ropes. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Yet he's been more than happy to take on that pressure and he stayed fit exactly at the right time and the lits got injured perfectly.

Aidan Hemmings got injured, Martínez of course got injured in early February and if United were going to go far in the Europa League they had to avoid some of the injury crises that they had towards the end of last season.

If they had as many injuries as they did this time last year, I don't think they would be in the final of the Europa League. I don't think they'd have had the coping mechanisms to deal with that. But the injury list doesn't feel as, certainly it's not been as severe as last season. And Jorgo, certainly during the first half last night or the first hour, Maguire was sloppy, Masraoui,

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Come into your neighborhood Starbucks to enjoy free refills of hot or iced brewed coffee or tea. So stop in and stay a while. Your free refill is ready at Starbucks. Visit starbucks.com slash refills for details. He wasn't at it. Amrim said afterwards that he's still not got the real energy to play 90 minutes. Dorgu, I thought, yeah.

You look at Patrick Dorg and you think in a year's time, we'll probably be talking about United needing a better left winger or a more established left winger if it's at all possible.

But Joro was the one defender in that back three. I mean, I've not even mentioned Lindelof there, who literally played them into trouble with a couple of passes in the early stages. And that can really set the tone for a night. And it did for an hour. But Joro was by far and away the most composed of the back three or the back five before United did kill the contest through Mount's first goal.

And the money they paid for him, it's not a great deal to expect. It's not so much that. But for the money they paid for him, you'd have expected him to have been a first-teamer at some point this season. And he is now. And he's a first-teamer at exactly the right time. So I think he's pretty much, despite that early setback on the pre-season tour, it feels like he's...

possibly ahead of schedule now in his development. And the fact that nobody's actually mentioning the fee that they paid for him, which was rising to 70 million euros,

that's that's a he's got to take that as a compliment because he's and again in terms of i talk about the maturity of lenny oro i mean his english is excellent but also there is stopping in the mix zone last night as well uh and he'd done a pre-match press conference in in bucharest i believe it was that that you're at in january he's like i think i think he's a lot more mature than people give him credit for and what we've seen so far looks very very promising

Yeah, absolutely. Right, let's rewind to the bad bit then, shall we? United, it felt like the rockiest moment in this game was the first 15 minutes of the second half, maybe the first 20 minutes when United had been poor in the first half. This was a chance to come in, regroup and things got worse and worse.

I mean, Athletic didn't really have any clear chances in that moment, but you mentioned the away end before. They were attacking that away end. The noise and the support was unbelievable in that period from the away end. And it almost felt like the Athletic players could sense that something was coming, that something was brewing. There was a real connection between the fans and the players in

in terms of the belief, even though it was 3-1. And, you know, I turned to you and we actually, we only just had our flights booked for Bilbao. And suddenly I turned to you thinking like, this is not looking good all of a sudden. And I mean, in that 15 minute spell, I really feared for them. And that was a, you know, Amarim said pre-match on Wednesday, we're going to have to suffer to reach the final. And I think we all kind of raised eyebrows and thought, I'm not sure you are, mate.

But boy, they really had to suffer in that period, didn't it? And that was a nervy, horrible moment in the game. And you could sense it within the stands as well. Well, there were a lot of worried murmurs last night. And...

As I said last week, United have lost 3-0 at home three times this season. And one of them was under Amrim as well. They lost 3-0 three times last season. It's not... When United lose these days, even when they concede four against Brentford or Newcastle, you shrug your shoulders because we're that accustomed to it. It's not...

Losing to Brentford at the weekend and a bottom half finish being confirmed was not even back page news. The shock factor of United being crap has gone out the window this season. It feels like this calendar year really. It's almost strange how the season has been separated into two very specific halves. Since that 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle,

I think everybody, anyone, sound of mind, has had the sense that they're going to finish in the bottom half of the table. They weren't even going to finish, never mind the top four, they weren't going to finish in the top half. And Amrim, since then, there have been a couple of occasions, most infamously post-Brighton, where he said, I think this might be the worst team in the club's history. And it's a great quote.

not entirely true because of course they did get relegated 51 years ago but even on Wednesday he was very specific about you know yeah we are he's doubling down on that what nearly four months later and it's again it's a great quote but I'm thinking like from a news angle is it the top line it looks it's probably the best the best quote in terms of what he's actually said

but he said this back in january they have factually become worse since then to the point that they are 15th in the premier league it didn't feel that seismic because i've i've what i've been at every united game bar two i think this season you've been at probably 30 odd or 40 odd struggle to keep counting times it's it's not a big deal that united lose and it wasn't

it wasn't shocking that they were one nil down last night. I wouldn't have been shocked if they'd gone two nil down. As I said earlier, the Williams sisters, nevermind the Williams brothers could have given them problems. It was a little bit strange to see how they went into Premier League mode last night in terms of their performance level. But again, I'll go back to what I said in terms of Amrim having to show some responsibility for that and that he is overloaded in the team with defensive players quite often still. And again,

i suspect he'll continue to do that for the rest of the season i don't agree with it but from his from his perspective he's probably thinking i can't trust these players to manage a more attack-minded balance i'm gonna have to wait for next season and getting new players in for that and i fully understand where he's coming from there but still your money and ice at home coming up against athletic bill bell who were almost

waving the right white flag when their squad was announced on Wednesday when you saw the glaring omissions of Iñaki Williams and Nico Williams. We knew Bibian was going to be suspended. We knew that Oihand Zanzet, the top scorer, was going to be unavailable again. So that's four of their most significant players.

and still united there amrim's feeling was right we need to be pragmatic we need to keep it tight and in fairness they haven't been trounced too often this season certainly compared with last season or the the solski arangic season but they've lost way more often than they did in either of those seasons and that vulnerability

It'll be interesting to see how that Europa League final plays out because the dynamic is, it really is fascinating in that Tottenham should look at United's team and not fear it. They really shouldn't. But then you look at United's Europa League record and it is daunting. It would be daunting for Tottenham. And Tottenham haven't won a final since 2008. They've been in...

what would it be four or five finals since then 2008 2009 2015 2021 league cup finals uh 2019 champions league final i don't think i've got to an fa cup final have they um peculiarly so everybody knows about you know typical top and spurs it's entered the football lexicon but

and yet if if i'm if i'm just trying to be an objective tottenham player who couldn't care less about jamie o'hara's safe penalty in 2009 or all these other final failures that they've had just look at the man united team but then again tottenham are below them in the premier league table and it i'm sure there are still some people out there claiming that those positions are false when they're not they are those two teams

as far as the Premier League is concerned, they are that bad. And yes, the Europa League progress would have sidetracked them in some of their Premier League games where they've been rotating and they effectively, they can't really be bothered with the league games, which...

I wouldn't say it's unforgivable. It's unsurprising. It's the footballers, their mentality. If there's something riding on the season in one competition, nothing riding on the season in the other competition, they're not going to be running at full power. They're not going to be going flat out in both of them. And come the final,

what they serve up, I'd like to think it'll be a treat. I don't think it's going to be as... I don't think it'll be akin to the Gdansk final in 2021, which was really 120 minutes of drudgery and this tactical disaster class from Oli Gunnar Solskjaer running Marcus Rashford into the ground on a night where even the announcer said Rashford was coming off because he thought he should come off and it was actually Paul Pogba whose number was up.

Yeah, it felt last night like... I mean, United played for the first hour, 65 minutes, like they were terrified. There was none of the composure or control or calmness of a team you would expect that is winning a game 3-0 at home, essentially. And as happy and as ecstatic as Amarim looked at full-time...

It felt to me like a night where he will learn more about these players from the first 65 minutes than he will the last 25. And as much as United have reached a final and it looks like they've reached it very comfortably, it also felt like a night in an hour or 65 minutes where he probably made judgments on a lot of those players about their capabilities going forward, not just in terms of ability, but in terms of mentality as well.

Well, Lindelof, I don't know why he started last night. He's going to get released at the end of the season. He was lucky to start last week. He should never have started last night. So he's going. You notice that Anano had to be told how to kick a ball by Amrim early in the second half.

Inanna relishes the responsibility and that senior status that he has. He's a 29-year-old, but if he's struggling to work out how to kick a ball, to almost waste time or not to invite athletic Bilbao players to come charging towards his goal, then you've got a problem there. The rest of the team, I think the majority of them, will still be starting the final. As I said earlier, I feel a little bit sorry for Dorgun that

They've signed a left back from relegation fodder in Serie A and essentially they're trying to make him play a role that Ryan Giggs played during his pomp in the 90s. If Dorku is a success, great. It's worked out brilliantly. But also, I would not be surprised if this time next year we're looking at that Man United squad and saying they need a left winger. They need a much improved player on the left wing, someone who's more senior, not a raw option, who, you

was relatively cost efficient although I'd still say £25 million is still quite a steep amount for a left back who's playing at Lecce rising to £29 million but his decision making was alright to say the least and I think he has gone I think he has regressed a little bit in

in recent weeks, having gone through a reasonably decent period. But again, I don't think you can necessarily underestimate the absence of Dalot there. They had a pretty good balance with both of them on the flanks. And Aldorca all of a sudden is ping-ponging from left wing to right wing. He was on the right wing for a period last night as well because United don't have a senior right winger to come on or to play in that role when Masrari is...

It seems to be at the limit, the way he's being managed by Amarin. Hoyland, as I said earlier, I thought he did okay in the first half, but then the second half, when the crowd start sighing that you're losing the ball again, you know the regression is quite stark and everyone knows that he's going to get replaced as a starting striker in the summer and so he should.

Garnaccio, I think, has actually overall he's done quite decently this season. But the problem with that miss last night is that I remember vividly him being in similar situations in his first full season against Burnley and against Leeds at that end, one-on-one. And one-on-one seemed to be his kryptonite. And two years on,

You are entitled to ask more from him in those situations. He has got to be more clinical, even though I think his work rate and the way he's adapted to Amrim's system have been quite commendable. And he is still a player that if United are selling him in the summer, I think there's something wrong with the club rather than the player. I completely get, you know, Anthony, get him out. Rashford, get rid.

Sancho, Getrid, Tyrone Malasia, etc. But Garnaccio should not be high up on that list or indeed on that list at all in terms of players that United should be looking to sell. Yeah. One thing that is a concern is

this habit united a suddenly backing of starting game slowly amarin flagged it in at summer mares last week and said they'd started poorly at bournemouth and he kind of told them to expect an early onslaught from athletic they started poorly again and gave the ball away a lot in that first 20 minutes last week and kind of got away with it

this week again it felt like the tone was set in the first 20 minutes they were sloppy on the ball simple mistakes giving it away kind of inviting that pressure on and it sets it gives the opposition the momentum and it's hard to reverse that in a game sometimes and certainly in the first half and

Looking at the head-to-head between United and Tottenham this season, Tottenham scored after three minutes at Old Trafford in September, after 15 minutes in the League Cup game in December and after 13 minutes in the Premier League game in February, I think that was, wasn't it? So there's kind of a pattern here in United's play at the moment and a pattern in the three previous games that Tottenham are taking early leads against United and Tottenham

I mean, surely in a final, they're going to start better than they have done, but they've started two semi-finals poorly. And it kind of feels like a real area of concern for me going into the final that they've got to be coming out of the traps quicker. And I don't know why they aren't. Well, I mean, Spurs had an infamously bad start in the Champions League final, didn't they, six years ago, when they conceded the penalty within two minutes, something like that. I think it was so early. Strangely, I think those three games, if you look at them...

The 3-0 home defeat in September, I think you can dismiss that because it was just an extension of last season where happy clappy fans thought Eric Ten Haag was still the right man to be Manchester United manager and the power brokers didn't actually know how to properly run a football club still at that point, so they kept him in situ. I think after that day, they actually realised, yeah, we are probably going to have to sack him here.

That game, that performance, the result, it was so reminiscent of some of the horror shows last season. The League Cup tie

They made five changes. They had Altai, Bayern, Deer in goal. They had Anthony on the wing. It must have been one of two or three games he started all season. Christian Eriksen was even starting in that game. It was so madcap that Bayern, Deer wasn't even actually the worst goalkeeper on the pitch. It was Fraser Forster, who was just an absolute walk in disaster. And then the game in February,

Eight of United's subs had never played for the club before, so you can cut them a little bit of slack. I mean, I think it was Gary Neville who went quite overboard over how bad United were that day. This was a team that had been losing loads of games this season, that lost 1-0, that didn't disgrace themselves. I think everybody expected them to lose because of the senior players that they were without as well.

So I don't think it's something for United to dread that they've lost three games against Tottenham this season. It is a standalone game. I think those three games are largely irrelevant.

Both teams have not really, certainly as far as their league form is concerned, they've not advanced whatsoever since then in terms of performance level or results. I think Tottenham might have only won four or five games since they beat United. When was that game? It must have been mid-February, I think. So we're talking about three months ago.

So we're talking about three months ago and just looking at it now. Where is it?

They've beaten Ipswich, Alkmaar, Southampton, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bodo Glimt twice, which when you read that out, it's pretty much so similar to how United go about their form as well, how they've gone about their form. So it's a strange one because Spurs' record under post-college against United is excellent. 1-4, drawn 1, the draw at Old Trafford last season, they were the better team.

But given that there's been a managerial change and those two games under Amrim, they don't have asterisks against them necessarily. But there's a lot of context behind why they lost those games in very, very different ways. I mean, I think we were all looking forward to the February one because we thought it could be as eventful as the League Cup tie. And in the end, it was pretty...

Uninventful primarily because United had a bunch of school children on the bench and they didn't make a change until the 89th minute and they don't score goals and they were never going to threaten Tottenham after James Maddison scored.

So to quote Ten Hag, he said earlier in the season, he said about that Tottenham game, I deny it. I deny it because Bruno Fernandes got sent off and we were able to appeal and the red card was overturned, completely ignoring the first 40 odd minutes where Tottenham

absolutely wiped the floor of them and humiliated them. And the only surprise was that it was only 1-0. But I think for Amrim's planning going into this game, I think he can just disregard those games. I don't think there's a great deal

to learn from them maybe one or two pointers to take on board I remember Madison's goal it came from Son Heung-min getting the ball on the left wing and Diogo Dalo was not quick enough to close him down 30 seconds after Amrim told him to get tighter to Son so things like that absolutely they'll get raised in the analysis but those performances largely I don't think they're that relevant going into going into the final and just under two weeks time

Yeah, absolutely. Finally, then, there is a game this weekend, the Let's Not Finish 17th derby between United and West Ham. Tottenham also in that conversation, of course. Does anyone care? I mean, it feels like these games are essentially meaningless now, aren't they? Like you say, Ahmad should get a start and get a run out. We might see some more kids. You might see a debut for Camerson and Mantato. We might see United win and kind of edge clear of the possibility of finishing tonight.

It's certainly the game they're most likely to win if the three left in the Premier League. But in reality, we're just kind of ticking them off before Bilbao now, aren't we? We are. We'll look forward to the full English breakfast at 11am if it's still out. We'll look forward to a quiet press room.

We'll look forward to the sunny weather because the forecast is looking good. We'll look forward to watching some good players on both sides. Obviously, Kudus and Bowen and West Ham have remarkably actually got some good players despite where they are in their league. United will have some players out that have not been getting starts as much recently, but

there's every chance it'll just go the way of the Wolves game a few weeks ago and they'll lose 1-0 at home because look at their league form, look how many times they've won in the league this season. It's 10 wins in 35. I think they've won six times under Amrim, isn't it? In 24 games, I believe. The expectation level is not high, but as I said earlier, they're not going to get any flack off match goers because they've got a Europa League final to play for and

That harmony at Selhurst Park last season, after getting absolutely trounced by Crystal Palace, it did no harm because a couple of weeks later, improbably, they won the FA Cup against the best team in the country. Yeah, absolutely. And let's hope they can finish the job off this season and win the Europa League. That's everything for now. Thank you for your time, Samuel.

Thank you, Ty. Appreciate it. Please remember to subscribe to get the latest podcasts. Building up to that Europa League final in your feed. Leave us a review as well if you've enjoyed it. We'll be back on Monday to dissect that West Ham game. We'll be back whatever, even if anything interesting happens or not. So that'll be your next podcast. But for now, thanks for listening and goodbye.